Watch Liz Cooper & the Stampede Jam Out in the Paste Studio

There are a lot of bands trying to make it in Nashville. But only every so often does one show some real personality and singularity. Liz Cooper and her band the Stampede are one such entity, and while that means they’re befallen to the music media’s need to classify a cool new sound, these guys are ones to watch. However, rather than dodge the subgenres that have been stamped onto them by others, Liz Cooper & the Stampede are embracing the labels. “Dream-folk psychedelic rock is what we’ve heard on the streets and we dig what the people think,” Cooper writes on the band’s Spotify page. “I suppose the blending of my unique vocal texture with my no rules, what-the-hell-am-I-doing picking and playing style from acoustic to electric guitar is the dream folk.”

Cooper’s right: Her voice is rugged and interesting, which gives their psych-forward music a country edge. The band recorded their debut album Window Flowers in Nashville in 2016, but it didn’t arrive until this year. Paste’s Robert Ham wrote in his review of the record: ”[Cooper] possesses a bluesy holler that feels like it could cut glass or shake a cheating partner to their core.” Indeed, Window Flowers is a rootsy rollick held in place by Cooper’s reverberating vocals.